Wolfsblood
by mistralcat
Summary: This time, it's Oz visiting Dawn at Princeton. When he collapses in front of her, there's only one doctor she trusts to take care of him. Sequel to Sleeping In.
1. Teaser

Disclaimer: Joss and ME own Buffy and company. David Shore, etc., own House and PPTH. I own nothing but the words.

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Author's Note: I began this story years ago, and for some reason, it just wasn't working. I got off my butt, made it work, and finished it - finally! - for the wipbigbang over on livejournal. Thank you, shen and frea, for making me finish it! And thanks to my friend Lisa for beta-reading.

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"Hey."

Dawn looked up from her Latin textbook and squinted into the sun. It took her a few moments to make out who it was, but then she jumped up from her seat and gave him a hug.

"Oz!"

"Hey," he said again.

Dawn practically pushed him into the seat across from hers at the table and then sat down again, wiping her hands on her jeans once she could do it without him seeing her. It was a cool autumn day in Princeton; she was bundled up in a thick sweater and warm socks under her boots, with a cup of hot chocolate next to her textbook. Why was he sweating like that?

"So, what's up?" she asked. "What have you been up to? And how did you find me, anyway?"

Oz shrugged. "Willow keeps me updated on where everyone is. I've been in Thailand."

"Wow," Dawn said, leaning forward. "I'm starting Asian languages next semester - but Mandarin and Japanese, not Thai. It would be so cool to go there. What was it like?" He wasn't just sweating, he was flushed and looked exhausted. What on earth?

"You'd like it," Oz said. "I wasn't in the tourist-trap areas." He suddenly started to shiver violently, his teeth chattering so much he couldn't talk.

Dawn jumped up again. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"

Oz shook his head, but couldn't seem to get out any words. Dawn looked around, but didn't see anyone she knew at any of the other tables. They were starting to attract attention, though. The table bumped her leg, and she looked back down at Oz just in time to catch him before he fell off of his chair. She tried to hold him still as she eased him down to the ground, but he was convulsing so hard that his flailing arms hit her several times before she could get him into a good position. She didn't mind that, but she had no idea what was wrong with him.

"I called 911," someone said, and Dawn looked up to see that they'd attracted a crowd.

"Thanks," she said. She was having horrible flashbacks to the last time someone had visited her at college and gotten sick, but she didn't care if this was magical; she couldn't deal with it on her own. She did need a doctor she could trust, though, and she knew just where one was. When the EMTs arrived, she couldn't answer most of their questions, but she could say one thing with certainty.

"Take him to Princeton-Plainsboro Teaching Hospital."


	2. Act 1

Disclaimer: Joss and ME own Buffy and company. David Shore, etc., own House and PPTH. I own nothing but the words.

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Cameron reached for yet another file off the pile on her desk and sighed. She'd been hoping to finish in time for dinner with Chase; not a date, really, but they'd wanted to have dinner together at his apartment. She still had an hour before she had to leave if she was going to make it, and she might manage it, but she didn't think so. Becoming the head of the emergency room at PPTH had been fulfilling - almost as fulfilling as working with House had been - but it was taxing even her notoriously good time management skills. There was just so much paperwork with this job. It was definitely giving her a much greater appreciation for what Dr. Cuddy went through every day. If it was this bad as just head of the ER, she couldn't even imagine what Cuddy had to deal with as dean of the whole hospital.

This wasn't getting her closer to dinner with Chase. Cameron sighed again and bent her head over the file, but before she could even focus her attention on the patient's name, Linda's head appeared around the door.

"Live one coming in," she said. "Went into convulsions over at the university. The friend's asking for you by name."

"Huh," Cameron said. She closed the file, placed it neatly back on top of the pile in her in box, and grabbed a pair of gloves on her way out the door. It looked like dinner would have to wait.

When the patient was wheeled into the ER, his convulsions had stopped. Cameron performed a superficial examination, but it quickly became clear that he'd slipped into a coma sometime between the university and the hospital. He was a small young man with dark red hair plastered to his head with sweat. She'd certainly never met him before. For the first time, she looked up at the friend who'd brought him in, and was suddenly enveloped in a hug.

"Oh, Dr. Cameron, I don't know what happened, he just started shivering and then shaking and then he fell out of his chair, and Willow's going to kill me, and why does this keep happening to me, and what did you do to your hair?"

Cameron tried not to laugh, because having a patient in a coma was nothing to laugh at. She managed to get her hands on Dawn's shoulders and held her a little away from her so she could see her face. She'd been right; it was Dawn. Cameron would never forget the extremely strange case of the man who wouldn't wake up until he suddenly just did, and she wasn't surprised that Dawn hadn't forgotten, either. What surprised her was that Dawn would insist on bringing her friend to PPTH, let alone to Cameron herself. They hadn't exactly been a big help the last time.

"Calm down, Dawn," she said, looking directly into Dawn's eyes and breathing deeply, hoping to get Dawn to follow her breathing pattern. After a few moments, it started to work, but then Dawn burst out again.

"What's wrong with him?" she said. Cameron saw Linda wince out of the corner of her eye. Dawn definitely had a piercing voice when she was upset.

"He's in a coma," Cameron said. "We've done everything we can to keep him stable for now, but we need to know more about what happened before we -"

"It's really a coma this time?" Dawn said.

Cameron allowed herself a smile at that. "Yes, it's really a coma this time," she said. "Why don't you sit down and tell me what happened? There's a chair right behind you."

Dawn collapsed without even looking for the chair. "I was studying outside, and he just showed up. Oz does that - this is Oz, by the way."

"Oz?" Cameron said, not writing it down. That couldn't really be his name.

"Oh, Daniel Osborne," Dawn said. "He's a friend of the family from way back."

"Like Xander," Cameron said, then wished she hadn't, but Dawn just nodded.

"Like Xander," she said. "Oz was in high school with Buffy and Willow and Xander. He's a bit odd," she added, looking fondly down at Oz, "and he tends to just show up places without warning, which can be fun. That's what he did this time. I haven't seen him for..." She trailed off and thought about it. "Five years? Six? Anyway, it's been awhile. And then he just appeared in front of me when I was studying. I didn't even know he knew I was here."

"Did he seem sick when you first saw him?" Cameron asked.

Dawn nodded. "When I hugged him, I noticed he was sweating, and it's not hot out there," she said. "And he was flushed - Oz is usually pretty pale - and seemed cold."

"Did he say what was wrong?"

Dawn shook her head. "I didn't want to ask; Oz is a pretty private person. Anyway, it all happened so fast. We weren't talking very long before he collapsed."

Cameron looked over the notes from the EMT plus the ones she'd just taken. "So, he was flushed and sweaty, but seemed cold, and then he started shivering and convulsing." She glanced at the monitors and Oz's face. "And now he's in a coma. Dawn, did Oz say if he'd been out of the country recently? Maybe sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia?"

"Oh, he said he'd been in Thailand," Dawn said, looking hopeful. "I'm not totally sure it was really recently, but recently enough to mention it. Does that mean you know what's wrong with him?"

"I think so," Cameron said. "I'll have a blood test done to confirm, of course -"

"Will you do it yourself?" Dawn asked.

Cameron looked surprised and then tried not to look annoyed. She still did want to have dinner with Chase sometime tonight.

"Please?" Dawn said, giving her beseeching puppy-dog eyes. "After last time...you're the only doctor I trust."

They were really, really good puppy-dog eyes, and Cameron sighed. She could understand Dawn's feelings.

"All right," she said. "It shouldn't take long."

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Dawn tried to stay out of the hospital staff's way as they moved Oz from the emergency room to a room on the third floor of the hospital. She couldn't remember if this was the floor Xander had been on, but she hoped they weren't anywhere near Dr. House. She didn't think she could deal with him right now. Once the nurse showed her where the call button was and left, Dawn sank down into the chair beside Oz's bed and watched his breathing for a few minutes. She found herself willing him to take each breath, as though that would ensure that he took it. Why did this keep happening to her? Had some demon or witch put a curse on her to make everyone who visited her at Princeton fall sick? She'd been so happy when Oz appeared; aside from the no doubt exciting stories he could tell her about Thailand, every time someone whom she hadn't actually ever really met remembered her when he saw her, she felt a little more real. And now one of those people might die.

Dawn tore her attention away from the shallow way Oz's chest rose and fell with each breath he took and rummaged in her bag for her cell phone. She had Willow's number programmed into speed dial, but she still paused before she hit the right button. Willow was the first person she had to call; she knew that, but she still didn't want to do it. After several more moments just staring at the phone, she took a deep breath and put the phone to her ear.

"Hey, Dawnie!" Willow's voice came through loud and clear, even from Rio. "How'd your date go Saturday night?"

Dawn had almost forgotten her date, and it certainly hadn't been anything to call anyone about, anyway.

"It went okay," she said, hating that she would take that happy sound out of Willow's voice in a few moments. "I have some bad news, though. Oz just appeared out of the blue this afternoon."

"And that's bad news how?" Willow said. "It's not the full moon tonight, right?"

"Crap," Dawn said, her eyes flying to Oz's sweaty face. "I'd forgotten all about that - what are we going to do? He can't stay here if -"

"Hold on, Dawnie, slow down," Willow said. "If that's not the problem - or it wasn't before - what's the bad news?"

"He's sick," Dawn said, still staring at his face. She hadn't paid any attention to the full moon in years, so she had no idea when it would be. She tried to remember what the moon had looked like during her date, but even though it had been pretty boring, she hadn't noticed the moon. "He just showed up, Willow, and then he stared shivering and sweating and convulsing, and I didn't know what to do. Someone called 911, and we came to the hospital...and then he slipped into a coma on the way to the hospital..."

"It's really a coma this time?" Willow said. "And are you sure it's medical? Not that it's likely to happen again, but -"

"It's definitely a coma this time," Dawn said. "Dr. Cameron says it is. And she thinks she knows what's wrong with him, too - she asked some really specific questions, and she's running some tests now."

"Well, that's hopeful," Willow said. "The full moon is a week away, by the way, so we have some time. I'll be there just as soon as I put together what I need for a teleporation spell - yes, I will, Kennedy, don't -" She broke off, and Dawn could hear Kennedy's voice faintly through the phone. After a few minutes of discussion that Dawn couldn't understand, but could tell was intense, Willow came back. "I'll be there as soon as I can, Dawnie. Don't worry. I liked Dr. Cameron last time; she seemed very competent. I'm sure she'll figure out what's wrong."

After Dawn hung up with Willow, she called dialed the Cleveland house number. She got one of the new Slayers that she didn't know, and when she asked for Xander, was told that he wasn't there. Faith was, though, and Dawn listened to the sounds of the house as the new Slayer walked the cordless phone to Xander and Faith's room in the attic. She must have passed ten other Slayers as she did so, and Dawn sighed right as Faith put the phone to her ear.

"What's up?" Faith said. "Sounds like the weight of the world."

Dawn shook her head, even though Faith couldn't see her. "No, it's just...I miss Slayer life, y'know? I'm so out of it here; I feel like I'm doing nothing to help."

"We got lots of Slayers," Faith said, and Dawn could hear the smile in her voice. "Only one weird-ass person who loves to learn languages. You'll help, sure as shit."

"I guess," Dawn said.

After a few moments of silence, Faith asked, "You called 'cause you're feeling lonely? I ain't the one to -"

"Oh!" Dawn said. "No, no, that was just from hearing...never mind. I called because I have another visitor who's now visiting the hospital, and I knew Xander would want to know about him."

"Who?"

"Oz - you met him, right? He just showed up out of nowhere, like he does." She explained everything that had happened again. Faith made the appropriate noises, but even though she said she had met Oz and remembered liking him, she hadn't known him well. She agreed with Dawn that Xander would want to come to see Oz in the hospital, though, and that she'd tell him as soon as he got in, so he could come as soon as he could. They even had a witch at the Cleveland house who could teleport him, so soon Dawn would soon have both Willow and Xander to support her. She wished one of them could make the next call for her, but they were busy, so after she said good-bye to Faith, she took another deep breath and dialed Buffy's number.

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Cameron looked at Oz's blood on the slide through the microscope and frowned. There were two things wrong with it, one of which had shown up on the initial computerized blood test, but the other hadn't until she'd actually put his blood on a slide herself. She could explain neither one, and she didn't like that.

She heard the door open and looked up from the microscope to see Chase walking into the lab.

"Hey," he said. "Linda said you'd be here. We still on for dinner tonight?"

Anyone else would have asked why the head of the ER was working in the lab herself, but Chase had worked under House, too. Plus, he knew her well.

"I'm not sure," Cameron said. "A patient came into the ER with severe chills, fever, convulsions, and a coma. He'd been in Thailand recently."

"Sounds like malaria," Chase said. "Start him on whatever antibiotic works on the variety you've just figured out he has, and come to dinner."

Cameron nodded and then shook her head. "It's definitely malaria," she said. "_P. falciparum_. I called up to get him started on doxycycline. The problem is that he has parasitemia of 11%."

Chase let out a whistle. "And he's still alive?"

Cameron nodded. "In a coma, but very much alive. That shouldn't be possible, right?"

Chase shrugged. "Anything's possible, but it is very unlikely. Still, you've done all you could." He reached out and tucked a strand of hair back behind her ear. "Come on home. I'll give you a back rub."

Cameron smiled at him. He gave great back rubs. But then she turned back to her microscope.

"There's something else," she said. "He's got something else in his blood, and I've never seen it before."

"Huh," Chase said. She could tell she'd caught his interest; after working with House for three years, they'd both seen much more than most doctors ever would. Something new was always interesting. "May I?" he added.

Cameron moved away from the microscope so he could take her place. She didn't say anything while he looked, letting him form his own impressions.

"That is odd," Chase said. "It's like a filament running through the plasma." He turned the magnification up. "Weird. It doesn't look any different under higher mag."

Cameron nodded. "I'd like to see it under an electron microscope...but that's not the weirdest part. Look at this slide." She handed him another slide of Oz's blood, one she'd treated not with the standard Giemsa stain for detecting malaria, but with another stain she'd picked at random.

Chase gave her an odd look, but took the slide and peered at it through the microscope.

"Whoa," he said. "I can tell it's the same stuff, whatever it is, but now it looks granular."

"Yeah," Cameron said. "Try this one."

She'd treated five different slides of Oz's blood, and each stain that she used made the whatever it was look different. She'd definitely never seen anything like this.

"Should I show it to House?"

Chase raised an eyebrow at her.

"He is the head of diagnostic medicine in this hospital," he said. "It's his job to look at weird things like this. And he likes you, so he shouldn't yell at you too much before he does it."

"I know," Cameron said, looking down at the slides laid out on the lab countertop. "The patient is a friend of Dawn's."

"Who?" Chase said.

Cameron sighed. "The girl who brought in the patient who wouldn't wake up until he did. She looked like Tick Girl."

Chase rolled his eyes at her. "I remembered her from the first part," he said. "Did she ask you not to show it to House?"

"I haven't told her anything yet, and I need to - she's probably wondering why I haven't come back and what the medicine is they're giving her friend," Cameron said. "She did ask specifically for me in the ambulance, so she obviously remembers what happened."

Chase gave her an odd look. "It was less than two years ago, and House is a bit memorable," he said. He looked back into the microscope eyepiece. "Have you considered that whatever this is might interfere with the malaria meds?"

Cameron nodded, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "If anything, it seems to be helping him survive with parasitemia of 11%, but it is worrying. He's in too much danger, though; I had to start him on the doxycycline. Even with normal malaria, the first antibiotic doesn't always work." She hopped down off the stool and stretched. Every lab stool she'd ever sat on had been too high to be comfortable. "I really should get back up to Dawn and tell her what's going on, and then I'll have to report this case and put in a call to the CDC about the 11%. Could I have a rain check on dinner? I might make it over in time for dessert, but I wouldn't count on it."

Chase stood up, too, and put his arms around her. Cameron leaned into his shoulder, smelling iodine, fresh laundry, and him.

"Definitely a rain check," he said, his voice rumbling through his chest. "I'd wait for you, but I have an early surgery tomorrow."

Cameron smiled up at him. "Sleep well," she said.

"Not as well as if you were there," he said, then cocked his head to one side. "Ask Dawn about the substance in the patient's blood; she might have some ideas."

Cameron drew back from his a little so she could see his face. "She said she hadn't seen him for years. What makes you think -"

Chase shrugged. "Just a hunch, I guess. Didn't you think they were all a bit strange, last time? Maybe this patient is like those freakishly strong girls."

"At least this time we have more than one symptom," Cameron said.


	3. Act 2

Disclaimer: Joss and ME own Buffy and company. David Shore, etc., own House and PPTH. I own nothing but the words.

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When Cameron got back up to Oz's room, Dawn was on her cell phone.

"This is different, Buffy," she was saying. She rolled her eyes, then widened them when she saw Cameron. "Okay, no, I don't _know _that for sure, but really, what are the odds? Besides, they've already started giving Oz medicine, and the doctor's here...yes, I will call you when I know what's...bye."

She hit the disconnect button with a little more force than was necessary.

"Honestly," she said, more to herself than to Cameron, "you make one small mistake, which _anyone_ could have made..." She trailed off, then looked up at Cameron. "Please tell me you know what's wrong with Oz."

Cameron winced. "I'm afraid he has malaria," she said. "Do you know what that is?"

Dawn looked unsure. "You get it from mosquitos?" she said.

"Yes, it is usually transmitted through mosquito bites," Cameron said. "You mentioned that Oz had been in Thailand recently; he most likely was infected there. Unfortunately, Oz has been infected by the _P. falciparum _strain of malaria, which is the more virulent strain. More dangerous."

Dawn stared at her, wide-eyed. "Is he going to die?" She was fingering her cell phone.

"It's too early to tell for sure, but that is a possibility," Cameron said. If she'd been less tired, she might have been able to come up with a better way to phrase that. "I'm sorry, Dawn. I don't want you to give up, because he could very well pull through this, but I do want you to prepare yourself for the possibility that he won't. We're treating it as aggressively as we can, and we'll continue to monitor his situation extremely closely, but this is a disease that kills millions of people every year. One thing that worries me is that his parasitemia - that's the amount of the actual parasites in his blood - is 11%."

"And that's bad."

Cameron looked at Oz's monitors, then down at his pale face. "It's almost unheard of," she said. "In general, parasitemia of 5% can be enough to cause death, but you said he was walking around just a few hours ago."

Dawn looked hopeful. "He was really almost fine; he just seemed like he had the flu or something."

"Influenza is nothing to scoff at," Cameron said, "but I know what you mean. It is very odd, but it makes me hopeful that he will pull through this." She tried to think of a good way to bring up the other oddity in Oz's blood, but there really wasn't a good way. "There's something else that I saw when I looked at Oz's blood, something I've never seen before."  
Dawn turned almost as pale as Oz was. "S-something else?"

"Yes," Cameron said, "but for all I know, it's a good thing. Maybe whatever it is is helping Oz fight off the malaria. I just don't know. I'd like to show it to Dr. House -"

"Do you have to?" Dawn said.

Cameron smiled at her. "He's the best diagnostician I know," she said. "If this is something else we need to worry about, he's the best doctor to figure that out."

"Then why aren't you working for him anymore?" Dawn asked.

Cameron kept on smiling. "I took a promotion to head up the ER," she said. Not quite the truth, but she wasn't about to tell Dawn what had really happened. "Dr. House has a new team now; I'm sure they'll get to the bottom of this."

Dawn looked sulky. "I suppose, if you think it's for the best."

"I do," Cameron said. "I'd also like to contact the CDC; I need to report the malaria to the state health department, but the CDC has malaria experts on call, and I'd like to ask them if they've ever seen anything like this before."

Dawn gripped the edge of Oz's bed. "The CDC?" she said.

"They have the most expertise in malaria," Cameron said. She knew that people who knew what the CDC was were often scared when they were brought onto a case. "With Oz's parasitemia at 11%, I definitely want their input on this."

"Okay," Dawn said. She still looked quite pale, so Cameron tried to distract her.

"How's Xander doing?" she asked.

It worked; Dawn perked right up. "He's fine," she said. "No...no lasting effects of the weird sleepiness. He and Faith are together now."

"I'm not surprised," Cameron said. "She seemed like someone who would go after whatever she wanted."

"You have no idea," Dawn said.

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Cameron went down to the cafeteria to get dinner before she headed back to her office to call the CDC. She started munching on her salad as she dialed the number; she figured that the CDC was probably used to doctors chewing in their ears when they called during the few times they could sit and eat during crises. She didn't get a live person, anyway, just a recording saying to leave a message and that a malaria expert would get back to her within a few hours. No one had by the time she'd finished her salad and sent off the email notifying the state health department of a case of malaria, so she headed up to House's office to see if he was there. She knew, because she always kept track of his cases so she could try to stay out of his way, that he had one that was keeping his team, at least, in the hospital at all hours. They weren't in there, although the white board was full of symptoms. Cameron deliberately didn't look at what they were, and when she finally tracked House and his team down back in the pathology lab, she didn't ask about their current case. She was trying very hard to distance herself from House and his antics; it wasn't working completely, but she felt like she was getting better.

"Heard you have malaria," House said as she entered the lab.

Cameron rolled her eyes, but tried to stay professional.

"I need a consult," she said.

"For malaria?" House said. "The ER must kill brain cells - even Foreman would know what to do with malaria."

Cameron looked over at Foreman, who was sitting on the other side of the lab bench. He didn't even look up from his microscope, though Kutner and Taub exchanged a quick grin.

"It's not the malaria," she said, looking back at House. "Although," she added in fairness, "the parasitemia of 11% in an alive patient is odd. It's something else."

"Something more interesting than parasitemia of 11%?" House said. "All right, you got me."

Cameron pulled her slide box out of the pocket of her lab coat and walked over to one of the microscopes. Kutner smiled at her and moved out of her way.

"This is the patient's blood under a GIEMSA stain," she said, putting the slide under the microscope and stepping aside. House limped over and peered at the slide.

"Have you ever seen anything like that?" Cameron asked. She hated to admit it, even to herself, but she was really hoping that he had.

House stared into the microscope for a long moment.

"No," he said.

Cameron sighed, then said, "It gets weirder." She took that slide out of the microscope and put one of the others in its place. She didn't even look to see which one it was. Kutner took the original slide out of her hand, elbowed Taub away from his microscope, and peered at the slide.

"Huh," he said, then let Taub look, too.

House looked up at Cameron, though he didn't really seem to be seeing her.

"You have more," he said.

"Yes," Cameron said, handing him the slide box. "Does that mean you know what it is?"

House didn't reply. He looked at slide after slide, and as he finished with each one, Kutner took it, then passed it off to Taub, Thirteen, and Foreman. After House was done, he leaned back a little and rubbed his thigh.

"Differential diagnosis, people," he said.

"What about our patient?" Foreman said.

"Can you only think about one thing at a time?" House asked, making a face at him. "What a man. I'm sure Thirteen, at least, can multitask. More importantly, do you have any new ideas about -" He snapped his fingers, and Thirteen sounded disgusted as she said, "Dylan." Cameron bit her lip to keep from laughing; that used to be her line. "Because if not," House continued, "we might as well help out our colleague here."

Cameron gave Foreman an apologetic smile, but he didn't even notice, he was so concentrated on House.

"Weil's disease," he said after a few moments where the two men just stared at each other. "Bonus, it's treated by doxycycline, which I'm assuming you're giving to the patient for his malaria."

"I am," Cameron said, "and it does fit the symptoms, but _Leptospira _parasites don't look anything like that - I double checked. Besides, it really seems like whatever this is is helping the patient, not hurting him. I mean, he's got a parasitemia of 11%."

Finally Foreman looked at her. "Legionnaire's disease," he said, pointing at himself.

"Yeah, yeah," Cameron said.  
"How about relapsing fever?" Kutner said. He held up one of the slides; Cameron couldn't tell which one it was. "It looks sort of like this under this stain, and I've never seen it under any of the others."

"I have," House said, "and it doesn't look like that. Not bad, though."

"Could it be rickettsial somehow?" Thirteen asked. "Or much, much worse, how about a prion? We know so little about how and why they work the way they do, maybe they could look like this sometimes?" She waved a vague hand at all the slides around the lab.

Cameron actually felt herself pale. "God, I hope not," she said.

"Let's concentrate on things we can actually cure," House said.

"I thought maybe some strange form of _Leismaniasis_," Cameron said. "It doesn't look extremely different from that under a GIEMSA stain, and I've never seen it under any other stains. He doesn't have the ulcer, but maybe some cases don't have it."

House shook his head. "I've never seen one without it," he said. "And your patient's been in south-east Asia, which isn't where it's endemic."

"I know," Cameron said. "I'm grasping at straws."

"Could it be some kind of allergic reaction?" Taub asked. He was looking at one of her slides - she didn't know which one - under the microscope. "Could these be Mast cells that somehow got in the blood? Under this stain -"

"I'm an immunologist," Cameron said, trying not to sound disgusted. "I know what Mast cells look like."

"Any other ideas?" House asked. He just got shrugs and blank stares, and when he turned back to Cameron, he actually looked sorry. "What are you going to do about the parasitemia of 11%?"

"Treat it as aggressively as we can, and hope that whatever else he has keeps him alive long enough for the doxycycline to work," Cameron said. "I don't know what else we can do. Thanks for the consult, everyone, and if you think of any other possibilities, however weird, please let me know."

She collected her slides and left, silently hoping that one of them would think of something, although not something as stupid as Mast cells. She headed back up to Oz's room to check on him one more time before going home to get some sleep, and wasn't surprised to see Dawn still sitting by his bedside, even though it was way past visiting hours. She was surprised to see Xander, the patient whose case had baffled them about a year and a half ago, and one of the young women who had rushed to his bedside. She didn't remember her name, but she did remember her gorgeous red hair and her definite presence. She wasn't really surprised to see them at Oz's bedside, she was just surprised to see them quite so soon, since surely Dawn had just been talking to them on the phone when she'd stopped in earlier. But perhaps they lived fairly close.

"Oh, Dr. Cameron," Dawn said, jumping up from the chair. "Can you tell if Oz is going to be okay yet? Did you figure out what else is wrong with him?"

Cameron smiled at her, but before she answered, she stuck out her hand to first Xander and then the redhead.

"I don't know if you remember me," she began, but Xander took her hand and didn't let her finish.

"Of course I remember you, Dr. Cameron, you helped save my life," he said.

Cameron shook her head, and she saw the two young women exchange glances out of the corner of her eye.

"I don't think we actually did very much, other than keep you comfortable while your body healed itself," she said.

"Well, I was very comfortable, and my body thanks you," Xander said.

"You probably really don't remember me, there were so many of us," the redhead said and reached out to shake Cameron's hand. "I'm Willow. Dawn says that Oz has malaria?"

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Cameron said, and explained what they'd surmised about Oz's case and what they were doing to treat it. She'd forgotten that Xander had spent time in Africa, and had to have seen cases of malaria before.

"Dawn said that his parasitemia is 11%," he said, "but that can't be right."

Cameron shook her head. "It makes no sense, I know," she said. "I've never heard of a parasitemia that high, especially in a patient who was conscious and walking around just a few hours ago. I have a call in to the CDC to talk to a malaria expert there - maybe they've heard of something like this before."

"Tell them about the other thing," Dawn said. She'd sat back down in the chair beside the bed, and was twisting her hands around each other.

"Other thing?" Willow said.

"There's something else in Oz's blood, something I've never seen before. I consulted Dr. House, and he's never seen it before, which means that whatever it is, it's very rare. We don't know how it's affecting Oz; all of his symptoms and other blood work are consistent with malaria, and it's even possible that whatever it is might be helping him to survive with a parasitemia of 11%. I'm hoping the malaria expert has some ideas, but right now, I really don't know what to tell you."

"What does it look like?" Willow asked.

Cameron sighed. She never was sure how much to tell patients and their families. She knew she'd gotten it wrong - in both directions - in the past, and she was constantly trying to figure this out. But this was so weird, there didn't seem any point in not answering, so she described what she'd seen in Oz's blood. Willow and Xander exchanged significant looks, but they didn't offer any explanations. Dawn looked baffled until midway through Cameron's explanation, when she let out a slight gasp, but when Cameron raised her eyebrows at her, she shook her head and hunched over in her chair. They were all obviously thinking something, but they just as obviously weren't going to tell her what it was. After several leading statements, Cameron gave up. She'd had a really long day, Oz was receiving the medication that would hopefully cure his malaria, and all she wanted to do was go home and go to sleep. Dawn, Willow, and Xander barely seemed to notice when she left the room, and all she could do was hope that the malaria expert would call with some good news.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Dawn said as soon as Dr. Cameron had left the room. She sank back into the chair, bringing her legs up to rest her chin on her knees.

"I think so, Brain, but where would we get a duck at this hour of the night?" Xander said.

Willow smacked him lightly on his arm, and he pretended to wince. Dawn felt herself relax for the first time since Oz had started convulsing.

"I think we're all thinking the same thing," Willow said. "The 'other thing' in Oz's blood is his wolfiness. It has to be, right?"

"Makes sense," Xander said. He leaned his back against the wall and crossed his arms over his chest. "If Dr. House hasn't seen it before, it mostly likely isn't medical - I looked him up after my really long nap, and he does seem to be the best diagnostician around. I wouldn't want to be one of his patients -"

"You _were_ one of his patients," Dawn said.

"And I'm glad I was asleep for most of it," Xander said. "But the signs do point toward the magical, especially since it seems like it's helping him survive the malaria. I can see the werewolf in him helping to fight off disease, can't you?"

"Definitely," Willow said, reaching over to smooth some of Oz's still sweaty hair away from his forehead. "The question is, what do we do about it?"

"What can we do about it?" Dawn asked. "It either is or it isn't -"

"Yeah, but Willow's right," Xander said. "We can't tell Dr. Cameron, but she's going to keep trying to figure out what it is, and then there's this CDC malaria expert she's calling - what will he think? I saw a lot of malaria cases when I was in Africa, and I've never heard of a parasitemia of 11%. The CDC will probably come in force, and how do we get Oz away from them in a week, when it's the full moon?"

"Don't worry about that," Willow said, waving her hand vaguely. "I can get him out of here if we need to...I'm more worried about Dr. Cameron."  
"She's already seen a miraculous cure of a patient with a completely unknown disease, why should this be any different?" Dawn asked.

"It's more the cumulative effect," Willow said. "When will she start questioning her sanity?"

"Well, then, maybe we should tell her," Dawn said.

"We can't just go about telling people about the supernatural when they don't need to know," Willow said.

"But maybe she does need to know," Dawn said. "I mean, what if Oz's werewolf-ism affects her treatment of the malaria? We're handicapping her…don't we want the very best care we can get for Oz?"

Willow looked annoyed. "Of course we do, Dawnie, but it's not that simple."

"I don't see why not. We've obviously told people before, and besides, it would be useful to have a doctor we can trust who knows what's going on."

"Dawnie's got a point, Xander said. "She's got another year to go at Princeton, it might be needed."

Dawn got up from her chair, walked around the bed, and smacked him.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The CDC still hadn't called by the next morning, so after checking in at the ER and making sure everything was running smoothly, Cameron headed up to check on Oz. She wanted to have the latest information before she called the CDC again. Willow was alone in the room with Oz, sitting on the chair beside the bed and holding his hand. Cameron said good morning to her, then picked up his chart and checked it over. He was still in the coma, but his vitals were stronger, and his parasitemia was down to 8% - still up over the point where he really shouldn't be alive, but much lower than it had been. And he was still alive. Cameron smiled at Willow, who was watching her anxiously.

"There's a definite improvement," Cameron said. "He's not out of the woods yet, but it is encouraging."

Willow let out a sigh and gripped Oz's hand even tighter, but before she could say anything, two women entered the room. One was a blonde who actually seemed to be checking the room for potential threats. The other was wearing a white doctor's coat and holding out her hand to Cameron as she followed the blonde into the room.

"Dr. Allison Cameron? I'm Dr. Brenna Jones with the CDC."

"The CDC?" Willow said from her chair.

"Yes, I -" Dr. Jones was a pale woman, but when she noticed Willow, she turned almost completely white, making her faint freckles stand out on her skin. Willow regarded her quizzically. Dr. Jones blinked, took a deep breath, turned back to Cameron, and went on, "I'm an exotic disease specialist. When we got your message about Mr. Osborne's unusual symptoms, we felt one of us should be on scene."

Cameron decided to ignore Dr. Jones' reaction to Willow. What was one more weird thing surrounding this case? "I'm glad you're here. Have you ever seen a parasitemia of 11%?"

Dr. Jones shook her head. "Not in an alive patient, I'm afraid. May I?" She gestured at Oz's chart. When she'd examined it, she went on, "I see it's down; that's hopeful. And you haven't changed the dosage of the doxycycline."  
"Do you recommend doing so?" Cameron asked.

"No, since it's -"

"Kate Lockley?"

Everyone in the room - except for Oz - swung around at the sound of Xander's voice from the hallway.

"Uh, yes," the blonde woman said. She looked confused, but she also looked like she was assessing Xander's threat potential. Cameron really was starting to get a little tired of all this weirdness. "Do I know you?"

Xander and Dawn walked into the room, which was now crowded enough to make Cameron feel a little claustrophobic. But that might have been just because of the way Kate Lockley was acting.

Xander shrugged. "We met once, in L.A, at Angel Investigations."

"Oh," Kate said. She and Xander had one of those conversations where they say everything with eyebrows and nods. Willow and Dawn had relaxed for some reason, and Dr. Jones looked a little thrown, but not like she had been when she first noticed Willow. Cameron was starting to hate being the only one in the room who didn't know what was going on.

"We found something else in Oz's blood," she said. "Something neither I nor Dr. House has ever seen before."

"Ah," Dr. Jones said, looking blandly at her. "I've heard of Dr. House, of course. If this is something he's never seen before, it must be out of the ordinary."

Cameron had to stop herself from rolling her eyes. If Dr. Jones had tried that one on her before her time with House, it might have worked, but not now. She opened her mouth to tell her to pull the other leg, but before she could, the monitors beside the bed went insane, and Oz began to convulse. Nurses poured into the room, and Cameron helped hold Oz so he wouldn't hurt himself during the seizure, even as she noticed that the hand she was holding had somehow become a paw.


	4. Act 3

Disclaimer: Joss and ME own Buffy and company. David Shore, etc., own House and PPTH. I own nothing but the words.

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"Did you see that?" Dawn said, trying desperately not to shriek, as soon as they had all been pushed into the waiting area by several amazingly determined nurses. "I saw that, right? I didn't imagine it?"

"No," Willow said, her eyes still fixed on what she could see of Oz's room. "You didn't imagine it."

"The good news is, he didn't scratch anyone," Xander said. He'd sunk down into one of the waiting room chairs and stared straight ahead. "And they turned back into hands. They did turn back."

"Yeah, but…" Dawn said, but before she could come up with an actual question, she heard her sister's voice from down the hall and embarrassed herself by throwing herself into Buffy's arms.

"What's wrong?" Buffy said. "The front desk said I could visit; I thought that meant he was doing okay." She patted Dawn's back, and Dawn tried to hold back a sniffle but didn't quite manage it.

"He was," Willow said, sounding hollow. "And then he went into convulsions and then his hands wolfed out."

"What?" Buffy said. She guided Dawn over to the sofa across from Xander and made her sit down.

"He wolfed out," Dawn said, trying desperately to keep her voice down. "His hands turned to paws – I don't know if anything else – but they turned back – but –"

Xander put his arm around her. "Breathe, Dawnie, nothing bad happened."

"But it could!" Dawn said. "And there's no reason why he should have wolfed out – the full moon isn't for another week! What is going on?"

Willow was still staring at the door to Oz's room. "I don't know," she said, "but I think that was the wolf helping to deal with the malaria. There must have been a crises, and the wolf needed to manifest to fix it."

"Then we_ have_ to tell Dr. Cameron," Dawn said, wringing her hands. She'd never thought she would actually do that, until she was in the middle of it. "She has to know what could happen. Any one of those people could have been scratched or bitten, and then they'd be a werewolf and wouldn't know what to do."

"Dawnie," Buffy said, taking hold of her hands. "We can't just tell people about the supernatural for no good reason."

"I know," Dawn said, trying to sound reasonable, because she knew her sister didn't think she could. "But this _is_ a good reason."

"What about that Dr. Jones?" Xander asked. "She obviously knows what's going on. Maybe we should talk to her first."

"Good idea," Buffy said.

"You don't even know who Dr. Jones is," Dawn said, glaring at her.

Buffy shrugged. "If she already knows what's going on, she's the one we need to talk to." 

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"He's stabilized," Cameron said, "and he seems no worse off than he was before. But we don't know for sure why he started convulsing like that." Actually, they didn't know why he'd stopped convulsing, either, but she wasn't about to tell that to a concerned family. And she wasn't even going to think about paws or the claws attached to them, or anything else like that. She'd been working too hard for weeks; she must have imagined it. Dawn, Xander, and Willow were sitting in one of the waiting areas, where they'd been sent to get them out of the way of the team trying to save Oz's life. Dawn's sister, Buffy, had joined them, but she was pacing by the window, as though she had too much energy to sit down.

"Is the medicine not working?" Dawn asked.

"Well, it _was_ working," Dr. Jones said. She'd been standing behind Cameron while she gave the news; actually, she'd been standing behind Cameron – with Kate Lockley standing behind her - ever since Oz started to convulse. At least that's how it felt to her, and she didn't like it one bit. Dr. Jones was the expert, though, so Cameron was able to step back slightly to force her in front. "Our best guess is that this was an allergic reaction to the doxycycline," Dr. Jones continued, after a wry glance at Cameron. "So, we're starting him on tetracycline instead."

"Guess?" Dawn said.

"Is the tetra-whatever not as good as the doxy-whatever?" Xander asked.

"They're both first-line treatments for malaria," Dr. Jones said. "The worry is that they're too similar, and Oz might be allergic to both of them. I'd say that we should know that soon, but..." She trailed off, and indicated that Cameron should continue from there, giving her another wry look.

Cameron almost shuddered - this woman was really annoying her, for some reason - but she was the immunologist, so she couldn't object to Dr. Jones' actions. She just wished she was as sure about what was going on as Dr. Jones sounded. "Allergic reactions are tricky," she said. "Someone could be in contact with an allergen for years with no effect, and then suddenly develop a reaction. So we just don't know. We hope that the tetracycline will continue effectively treating the malaria, even if Oz does develop an allergic reaction to it later. There are other treatment options; I want to emphasize that."

"They're not as good, though," Willow said.

"Doxycycline and tetracycline are the first choices," Cameron said. "But the others are good, too. We will be continually monitoring Oz for any reactions, and we'll continue to treat aggressively. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back to the ER. I leave you in good hands." She patted Dawn on the shoulder as she walked away; she didn't blame the girl, after all, and Dawn was the one who had asked for her in the first place, but she really needed to get away from Dr. Jones. She wasn't sure why the CDC doctor was annoying her so much, but she really didn't want to let loose something she'd learned from House on her.

The bustle of the ER managed to calm Cameron down after a couple of hours. There hadn't been any real medical reason why she'd needed to return to her own department; her staff could run it well enough without her that she could spend a day or two on a case without worrying. She did need to make sure that they tested for the right unusual diseases on the tricky cases; they hadn't worked under House for three years, so they didn't know the things he expected the ER to do before they turned over a case to him. They didn't know yet, anyway; she was already noticing that they'd started picking up some of them, and she didn't doubt that they'd be close to caught up soon. Working under House, she'd somehow unconsciously picked up his conviction that every other doctor in the world was an idiot, and she was glad that she wasn't so far gone that she hadn't been able to realize that obviously wasn't true.

So she didn't know why Dr. Jones was bothering her so much. Maybe it was that she was almost too polite, deferring to Cameron when most doctors from the CDC wouldn't have. Maybe it was Kate Lockley, who really did seem like she was a bodyguard for Dr. Jones, which just made no sense. Maybe it was Dr. Jones' reaction to both Willow and Xander, whom Cameron had liked the last time they were here. Or maybe it was that Dr. Jones seemed almost amused by Oz's condition, as though it wasn't something to worry about. If she knew something that would make her be complacent about a parasitemia of 11%, Cameron wished she'd share it with her.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

After Dr. Cameron left, Xander said to Willow, "Can you cast that muffliato spell?"

Willow rolled her eyes. "That's Harry Potter, not a real spell."

Xander grinned at her. "Yeah, but can you cast it?"

Willow grinned back. "Already done."

"Good," Buffy said. "All right, who are you people?"

Dr. Jones looked confused. "I thought Xander knew Kate..."

"She doesn't mean that," Kate said. "She really means '_what_ are you people?'"

"I was trying to be polite," Buffy said.

"No, what we really mean is 'why are you interested in Oz?'" Willow said, allowing a little bit of power to crackle around her.

Kate looked amused. "No need for that," she said. "We're on the same side here."

"I'll have an easier time believing that once you tell me what organization you represent," Willow said. "You're not really from the CDC."

"Yes, we are," Dr. Jones said. "Or at least, partly. I really am an exotic disease specialist; it's just that most of my coworkers don't know just how exotic the diseases are that I study."

Buffy looked skeptical. "And doctors from the CDC are routinely provided with bodyguards?"

"Not routinely, no," Kate said, still looking amused. "Just the really exotic ones."

"That's enough, Kate," Dr. Jones said. "We don't want to make these good people angry with us."

"You really don't," Dawn said under her breath, but apparently not under it enough, because Kate smirked at her. Dawn thought Kate was being stupid - gun or not, no one in their right mind wanted Buffy or Willow angry with her, especially when she knew who they were, which these people obviously did.

Dr. Jones ignored both of them. "In addition to working at the CDC, I am a founding member of the DIS." She looked at them expectantly.

"The...Dogwood Insurance Society?" Xander said. "The Dilbert Idiotic Syndrome?"

Dr. Jones deflated. "You've really never heard of us?"

"Until you tell us what you are, we can't tell you that," Buffy said. She looked like she was hanging onto her temper by a spider web.

Dr. Jones sat down on a chair across from Dawn, Willow, and Xander's couch. Dawn thought that she would wish she hadn't in a few minutes; the seats were supremely uncomfortable. "I'd worked at the CDC for several years, specializing in exotic diseases, before I realized that some of the diseases I was studying weren't, quite. Or at least they couldn't be expected to behave as the diseases I'd learned about in medical school behaved. Some were actually curses that unsuspecting doctors thought were diseases, some were symptoms caused by spells that went wrong...you get the picture. A couple of other doctors at the CDC were realizing what was going on about the same time, and we managed to get together to talk about it all. At my house - we weren't about to crazy-talk at the CDC. We were still talking when a group of people in black fatigues burst into the house."

"The Initiative?" Xander said.

Buffy nodded. "Or whatever they're calling it now. Riley is going to be hearing from me."

Dr. Jones looked confused, but then shook her head and continued. "After all the screaming stopped, they told us they were from the government, which surprised us, since, well, so is the CDC. They actually threatened to erase our memories, which we most of us didn't believe could happen then, although now…" She flicked a glance at Willow, and then went on, "Anyway, they eventually admitted that having some doctors at the CDC who could recognize problems caused by the supernatural would be a good thing. They formed us into the Demon Intelligence Service –"  
"Seriously?" Dawn said.

Dr. Jones looked down. "I know it's not the best name, but we wanted something close to the Epidemic Intelligence Service for tradition's sake, and that's what we came up with. Anyway, that was three years ago, and we've been working hard ever since. I know we've saved some lives that wouldn't have been saved otherwise." She looked up again at that, lifting her chin and looking defiant.

"How many is 'we'?" Xander asked.

"There are six doctors, two epidemiologists, and Kate in the DIS," Dr. Jones said. "We're understaffed, of course, but we feel that we can't bring someone in until they've at least mostly figured out what's going on on their own."

"See?" Buffy said to Dawn. Dawn glared at her.

"There have been two doctors that we know of that have figured it out," Dr. Jones said. "One in L.A. and one in Cleveland."

"Cleveland?" Xander said, then shook his head. "We'll talk about it later. What do you do?" he asked, turning to Kate.

"Exactly what you think," Kate said. "Bodyguard and minder. Doctors can be a little naïve; you wouldn't believe how many times I've had to stop one of them from doing something really dangerous just to treat a patient."

Dr. Jones stared at her. "That's our _job_," she said. "And doctors have been going into much more dangerous situations to help people for centuries – Ebola outbreaks, plague, cholera, hantavirus –"

"Yeah, but those situations don't often involve vampires or demons," Kate said, smirking at her. "Anyway, I try to keep everything copacetic when a doctor's out in the field. This one's actually a cakewalk, especially since you're all here."

"Well, if Oz really wolfs out, it won't be all cakey," Buffy said.

"Huh," Kate said. "I figured Willow could handle it. We've heard so much about her."

Willow blushed. "I might be able to, but I'm not sure," she said. "I could definitely get him out of the hospital if necessary, but that might cause more problems than it helps. It might mean freezing time, not to mention erasing people's memories, which I really, really don't want to do."

Xander patted her hand. "Let's figure out how to prevent that," he said. "Do you know why Oz is wolfing out, Dr. Jones?"

"I think his werewolf is helping his immune system fight off the malaria," Dr. Jones said.

"That's what I said," Willow said.

Dr. Jones nodded. "It is the most likely scenario. We have seen several cases that were similar – not werewolves or malaria, but times a part-demon was able to survive a disease that would have killed a pure human." She gazed bleakly at the wall for a few moments, then shook herself and went on. "Often, the part-demon would manifest his or her demon side without volition while sick, even if he or she had control of manifesting ordinarily."

"But then we have to tell Dr. Cameron," Dawn said, feeling like a broken record. "It's just too dangerous not to. We don't want a bunch of nurses and doctors to turn into werewolves."

Dr. Jones shook her head. "She has no idea, Dawn. We can't just tell her out of the blue. It's not procedure."

Dawn stared at her. "Exactly my point – she has no idea. It's too dangerous! Help me out here, guys," she added to Buffy, Willow, and Xander.

Willow and Xander both looked thoughtful, but Buffy shook her head. "We can't just go telling people willy-nilly, Dawn," she said. "Besides, with all of us here, we don't need to. As long as we're with him at all times, we can prevent anything from happening."

Dawn sighed. She didn't agree with her sister, but she knew from experience that she wouldn't be able to convince her right now. But if what was needed was Dr. Cameron figuring out, maybe she could make that happen.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Chase managed to join her for lunch in the cafeteria, and Cameron tried to tell him about her reaction to Dr. Jones. He listened attentively and came up with possible reasons for her reaction without acting like he thought she was crazy - he was really good at that - but since he hadn't met the CDC doctor, he really couldn't understand. Just being with him made Cameron feel better, though, so after lunch she felt able to go back up to Oz's room. She'd kept track of his case over the morning, of course, so she knew he hadn't had another allergic reaction - if that was what it was - and that his parasitemia was down to 6%. Maybe Dr. Jones had had reason not to worry.

When she got to the room, Dawn was sitting there alone.

"Where's everyone else?" Cameron asked, picking up Oz's chart from the end of his bed.

"Buffy, Willow, and Xander have gone to get hotel rooms," Dawn said, smiling slightly. "Somehow, they don't feel comfortable spending the night in my room."

"Especially Xander, I would imagine," Cameron said, only partially paying attention. Oz really did seem to be improving.

"Yeah," Dawn said. "Dr. Cameron…"

Cameron looked up to see Dawn looking hopeful.

"Dr. Jones was here a little while ago," Dawn said. "She said that Oz's parasitemia is down to 6% - that's good, right? I mean…"

Cameron brought another chair over to sit next to Dawn. She thought she recognized what was going on with her – sometimes, friends and families of patients had a hard time trusting doctors who were brought in later on a case. Even when the later doctors were specialists in whatever the patient had, they trusted the original doctor more. And if Dawn was getting the same vibe Cameron was from Dr. Jones, she couldn't blame her for not trusting her.

"Yes, Oz's parasitemia is down to 6% - or was an hour ago – and yes, that is good. It's still too high, I won't lie to you, but it's definitely encouraging. His vitals are stronger, too; in fact, he presents as a much less sick patient than I would expect. If the parasitemia keeps dropping at this rate, I wouldn't be surprised if he comes out of the coma relatively soon."

"Really?" Dawn said, looking thrilled. "That's, that's…wow. But," she added, drooping again, "what about the other thing in his blood? Have you figured out what that is?"

Cameron frowned and looked over at Oz. Not only had she not figured out what the other thing in his blood was, she hadn't even asked Dr. Jones about it. True, there had been the crisis that was probably an allergic reaction, and then she'd felt like she'd had to get away from the CDC doctor…good grief. Surely someone trained under Dr. House wouldn't have fallen for something so obvious, and yet she had. Dr. Jones had deliberately set out to annoy her so much that she'd left without asking about anything weird. Which meant that Dr. Jones knew about the other thing in Oz's blood, and probably knew what it was and how it was helping Oz stay alive when by all Cameron knew about malaria he should be dead. And yet she obviously didn't want to tell Cameron what she knew. Cameron didn't like secrets, especially when her patient's life might depend on it. And that wasn't the only weird thing going on. She looked back at Dawn, who was staring at her, her eyes full of hope. Cameron suspected she actually knew more than she was acting like she did, so she'd have to tread carefully.

"I have not figured out what it is yet," she said, watching Dawn closely. "It isn't anything I've seen before; even Dr. House has never seen it before. I suspect Dr. Jones knows more than that." Dawn flinched ever so slightly, but that could have meant anything. "It seems to be helping Oz fight off the malaria, luckily, so it's likely not another disease, although I have seen cases where one disease has helped keep another in check, so that's still a possibility." Dawn looked intrigued and a little surprised, so that wasn't it. "It could be something inherent to Oz – something genetic – although it would have to be just a random mutation, since Oz's heritage is not African or Mediterranean, and a random mutation that beneficial is extremely unlikely." Dawn still looked intrigued, so not that. Besides, there wouldn't be any reason to keep that a secret. What was left? What could possibly be so dangerous or important that it would have to be kept a secret from Oz's doctor? A vision of paws and claws suddenly on a patient where hands should be flashed into her mind, but she tried to dismiss it. Yes, that would be both dangerous and important enough to be kept a secret, but… Cameron narrowed her eyes at Dawn.

"Dawn, if there were something that I needed to know about Oz, you would tell me, right? I truly want to help him get better, and I need to know everything you know in order to do that."

Dawn deflated a little. "I…" she said, looking away from Cameron and biting her lip. "I…can't. I mean, I…don't know what you're talking about."

Cameron almost laughed at her, but stopped herself. Dawn, at least, seemed to want to tell her, or at least felt badly that she couldn't tell her. And at least now she knew there was something to tell, something that wasn't a disease or genetic condition. Something truly weird.

She patted Dawn's hand and got up from the chair. Dawn looked up at her, and she again looked hopeful. Cameron still had no idea what was going on, but now she was determined to find out. Dr. Brenna Jones from the DIS of the CDC might not want her to know what the secret was, but Cameron had spent three years working for House. Dr. Jones should have known better.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hey, you."

Cameron looked up from her computer, her eyes taking a few moments to focus on Chase's face. "Hey, yourself," she said.

"So, no dinner at my place tonight, either?" he asked, one side of his mouth quirking up. That usually made Cameron want to kiss it, but right now she was so unsettled that was the furthest thing from her mind.

"I'm sorry," she said. She felt her attention starting to drift back to her computer screen, and forced herself to focus on Chase. She was starting to believe what she'd been reading, but she couldn't really believe that she was believing it.

Chase took the step and a half from the door to her office to her desk and bent over the books spread out on it. "This still the same case, or did something else weird come in?" he asked.

"Same case," she said. "I'm still trying to figure out what that second thing in Oz's blood is. But there hasn't been anything in any of these books to help."

Chase stared at her. "It looks like you have every medical textbook ever written here," he said. "Nothing at all?"

Cameron shook her head. "According to these books, no one has ever seen anything like it."

Chase tilted his head and studied her. "According to these books?"

Cameron nodded. She'd thought he would pick up on that. "And I've searched PubMed and every other medical database I could find online, and nothing. I'd almost thought I'd found something completely new that would make me famous."

Chase pulled up a seat next to her, sat down, and reached out to take her hand. "Almost?"

Cameron looked down at their intertwined hands. She wondered if he could believe what she was thinking. If he could possibly believe what she was thinking. If she could even believe…if she hadn't gone crazy.

"There's something I haven't told you about the case," she said. "Something that's hardly believable…oh, and I figured out why I was so annoyed by Dr. Jones."

"I knew you would," he said, starting to rub her hand with his thumb. "Why?"

"She wanted me to be."

Chase stared at her. "Why would she want you to be annoyed with her? I know CDC docs can be arrogant sometimes – "

"Oh, it's more than that," Cameron said. "She knows what that extra substance is in Oz's blood, and she doesn't want me to figure it out."

"But that doesn't make sense," Chase said. "Why would she keep something like that from Oz's doctor? Doesn't she want him to get better?"

"Huh," Cameron said, and thought about it for a few moments. "No, I don't think that's it. I think that she's trying to keep a secret so big and potentially dangerous that it's worth keeping me in the dark to keep it."

"What? You mean, he's a spy or something? That's crazy. Sorry, hon."

"Oh, yes, that would be crazy," Cameron said. "But what I think is actually crazier." She gazed at Chase for a few moments, and he gave her the space to think. "I didn't tell you this before, because it's not just crazy, it's insane, and I thought I'd just imagined it, with everything that was going on just then. Now I'm hoping I'd just imagined it, but I don't think so." She paused again, and he just looked encouraging. "When Oz had that allergic reaction, or whatever it was, for a few moments, his hands turned into paws. With huge claws on them."

Chase shook his head. "I'm sorry again, hon, but that's not possible."

"Oh, I know," Cameron said. "Completely outside the realm of possible. And yet it happened."

"Are you sure you didn't imagine it? I know we're used to looking for zebras after working for House, but in this case a horse is more likely. Did anyone else say they saw it?"

Cameron shook her head. "But I wouldn't think anyone would. I mean, I didn't, and I was the attending doctor. Would you think a nurse would want to come to me with something like that?"

"No," Chase said. He had his head tilted to one side and was studying her. She laughed.

"I know you think I'm crazy," she said. "Hell, I still half think I'm crazy. But if I am, so are a lot of other people." She took back her hand and turned her computer screen so he could see it. She watched his eyes widen as he took in the Demons, Demons, Demons website. "Maybe all of these people are crazy – there's many more sites like this, by the way. But if they're crazy, they're awfully rational about it. I mean, everything is self-consistent, and most of them sound like completely normal people. There are some crazies, but there are some crazies everywhere on the internet…"

"Did you find something to explain what is going on with your patient?" Chase said, not looking away from the screen. He reached across her to use the mouse to scroll down the page.

Cameron nodded, even though she knew he wasn't watching her. "There are a few options. He could be part-demon – apparently, there are a lot of part-demons living lives that look completely normal, but their demon side can help them fight off illness or even help them heal faster from injuries. Or he could be under a spell."

"A spell?" Chase said, staring at her. "Magic? Actual magic? Witches and warlocks and sorcerers?"

Cameron laughed again, and then made herself stop when she realized she sounded just a little hysterical. "You'd believe in demons, but not magic?"

"I didn't say I believed in the demons either," Chase said. He stood up and walked over to the door, looking both ways outside it before closing it. "Allison, this is not possible."

Cameron studied him. He held himself more stiffly than she ever remembered seeing him, even when he first joined House's team, and his face was completely closed off. But at least he'd called her Allison.

"Let me show you something," she said, turning back to the computer and pulling up one of her new bookmarks. "There's another website - this is one of the most rational."

Chase remained standing against the door for several moments, while Cameron tried to will him to come back over to her. Finally, he sat back down and looked at her computer screen, although he had his arms crossed over his chest while he did it.

The website was that of the New Watchers' Council, whatever that was. Cameron wasn't entirely sure how she'd gotten to it, and she was entirely sure she wouldn't be able to retrace her steps, so she'd bookmarked it as soon as she'd realized what she had. She'd just have to remember to delete the bookmark – and her cookies – before she left for the day. Because this website obviously took the whole demons and magic thing seriously. It didn't start by explaining things, the way most of the other sites did; it assumed you knew what you were doing already and went on from there.

"What's a Watcher?" Chase asked.

Cameron shrugged. "I don't know, any more than I know what a Slayer is. Really, this whole site seems more like one for a company or a non-profit organization, and an internal site, at that. I have no idea how I even got to it. But look." She clicked on a link and then another, and the picture that she was sure would haunt her nightmares for weeks appeared again. It was a pen and ink drawing, not a photo, although there were those, too. She just wasn't sure she needed to see them again. "Those are the paws and claws that I saw."

Chase stared at the screen, holding himself more stiffly than ever. "It says that's a werewolf."

"I know."

"There are no such things as werewolves."

"I know that, too, but I also know what I saw."

"You can't have seen it." He uncrossed his arms and put one hand on her shoulder. "You've been working too hard and are starting to hallucinate. We'll start with a good night's sleep, and if that doesn't work, maybe you should see a psychiatrist."

Cameron almost laughed, but stopped herself in time. She'd just seem even crazier to him, but she did think it was funny how much of a doctor he was being. Diagnose the illness, don't think about other possibilities. Of course, she used to be just like that – used to as of a couple of hours ago.

"I'm not crazy, and I don't need a good night's sleep." She reconsidered and added, "Well, I do, of course, but that won't change anything."

"It has to," Chase said, gripping her shoulder almost too hard. "Please, Allison, let's go to Dr. Levin – she'll be able to help."

Once again, Cameron stifled a giggle. "I don't need a psychiatrist, Robert, really. Or do you think all of these people in the New Watchers' Council do, too?"  
Chase didn't even look back at the screen. "I don't care about them; I do care about you. We need to get you help."

Okay, Cameron thought, this was getting a little annoying. She understood that he hadn't seen what she'd seen, but he should be taking her a little more seriously. "I don't need psychiatric help," she said a little more forcefully. "I need you to believe me."

Chase dropped his hand from her shoulder. "How can I? You're obviously seeing things that aren't real."

Cameron glared at him. "I'm not, and I'll prove it to you. You know that substance that we saw in Oz's blood? Well, medical science can't explain it – it's not in any of the books, and even House has never seen it. But this website can explain it. It's a curse – a werewolf curse – and –"  
"That's not an explanation, that's a superstition," Chase said. He jumped up again, as though he couldn't bear to keep sitting. "Curses, werewolves, magic, none of it is true, Allison."

"But, wait, it even explains how Oz was alive with a parasitemia of 11%," Cameron said. She turned back to her computer screen, partially to read what was there, and partially so she wouldn't have to see that look on Chase's face. "It says here that werewolves are much stronger than humans and that the only way to kill them is to use silver – silver bullet or knife or something. It make sense that Oz being a werewolf would allow him to fight off illness better than normal."

"Makes sense?" Chase almost shouted. "None of this makes sense. You're being completely irrational. What is really going on, Allison? Why are you acting like this?"  
"Why am I acting like this?" Cameron said, standing up and glaring back at him. "Why aren't you even trying to listen to my ideas? You never did take my ideas as seriously as House's or Foreman's."

"What? That has nothing to do with – and it's not true, anyway," Chase said. "But no one could take this idea seriously, because it's completely crazy." He said the last three words very slowly and distinctly, and that's when Cameron knew she wasn't going to be able to convince him. She sank against the wall of her office.

"I'm sorry," she said. "Why don't you head on home. I'm going to be here awhile yet."  
Chase shook his head. "No way, not when you obviously need help."

"Dr. Levin again?" Cameron said, feeling herself smile without really meaning it. "That won't be necessary – I'm sure all I need is a good night's sleep."

"But you need –"

"Robert, I'm fine," Cameron snapped. He flinched back, and normally she would apologize immediately, but not this time. "You're not my keeper. I will decide what I need and don't need. Now go home."

Chase stared at her for a few moments, then said, "Fine," and stomped out of her office. Cameron sank back down onto her desk chair and stared at the drawing of the werewolf. She was sure what she'd seen, and sure what it meant, but she really wished she weren't. She'd always thought knowledge was a good thing, but it didn't seem like it was this time.


	5. Act 4

Disclaimer: Joss and ME own Buffy and company. David Shore, etc., own House and PPTH. I own nothing but the words.

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Cameron took Chase's advice as to getting a good night's sleep. She did it at her own apartment, not his, which made it a little harder – she'd gotten used to sleeping with him there, and it was difficult to fall asleep in her empty bed. The pictures and information she'd seen on those websites made it hard, too, not to mention the nightmares of paws and claws. She managed a good seven hours, though, which was more than she usually got. And she woke up just as convinced about what she'd seen than she had been before she'd gone to bed.

As she fixed herself breakfast and ate it, she thought about what she should do. Chase wasn't going to believe her, so she couldn't go back to him. She actually considered going to House with this, but set it aside as a last resort. He might believe her – he'd certainly noticed how strong Buffy and Faith were the time Xander was their patient, and as far as she knew, he'd never figured out why. Cameron now suspected that both of them were Slayers, whatever that was, which certainly explained why he never had. But House wouldn't be able to confirm anything for her; he'd be just as lost as she was. And Cameron needed to have all of this confirmed, she needed to know that she wasn't crazy and that she hadn't fought with Chase over nothing. There really was only one place to go for that.

So the first place she went on entering PPTH was Oz's room.

When she got there, only Dawn, Willow, Xander, and Buffy were there, which made her glad. Even though she knew that Dr. Jones had been doing it deliberately, she was still annoyed at her, and Kate just made her uncomfortable. But that wasn't important right now – she'd just been standing in the doorway for too long, and everyone was staring at her.

"Dr. Cameron?" Willow said. "Is everything all right? Oz seems like he's doing better." She looked down at the hand she was holding, then looked back up at her. "He is doing better, right?"

"Yes, he is," Cameron said. She turned and shut the door to the room before taking a few steps to stand at the foot of the bed. Willow and Dawn were sitting in chairs on either side of Oz's bed, Buffy was perched on the window sill, which Cameron hadn't known was possible, and Xander was leaning against the wall, looking completely comfortable. Cameron wished she could say the same about herself.

"Oz is doing much better," she said, picking up his chart and glancing rapidly at it. His parasitemia is 4%, and all of his vitals are strong. His color's even better." Everyone glanced at Oz's face for a moment, then looked back at her. "That's…not why I'm here." Everyone still stared at her. Buffy and Xander had tensed up, Dawn was looking hopeful again, and Willow…

"Dawnie," Willow said, and Dawn flinched. "What did you do?"

"She didn't do anything," Cameron said quickly, even though she wasn't quite sure that was true. "I saw the paws and claws all by myself. I couldn't just let it go at that."

"Oh, you'd be surprised," Xander said. Both he and Buffy relaxed a little, although Buffy was glaring at Dawn's back. The fact that they'd actually relaxed when she mentioned paws and claws, though, told her she was on the right track.

Cameron ignored all of them. She was finding it easier to focus on Willow, for some reason. "He's…he's a werewolf, isn't he? Please don't tell me I'm crazy."

"I won't tell you you're crazy," Willow said, practically radiating calmness. "But why do you think he's a werewolf?"

"I did mention the paws and claws, right?" Cameron said, crossing her arms over her chest. Willow's calm was helping, but nothing could make her calm right now. "Plus the substance in his blood…from what the sites say, that's his werewolf curse, right?"

"The sites?" Willow said.

"Yes," Cameron said. "Demons, Demons, Demons and the New Watcher's Council sites. I think the Demon Compendium mentioned it, too, but…" She trailed off, because Willow had turned to glare at Dawn, and for some reason, that made all of Cameron's calm disappear.

"I'm sorry," Willow said, turning back to her, and Cameron felt the calm settle back down upon herself. "Please continue."

"Well, it seems to me that, postulating that werewolves exist, which considering the evidence of my own eyes I must, Oz is a werewolf, and his…his werewolfness is helping him fight off the malaria and keeping him alive when he wouldn't be if he were…were just human." Cameron studied the pale face lying on the pillow. "I don't suppose we could use that in Africa? Malaria is such a huge problem…" She trailed off, because all of them were shaking their heads. "No, I suppose it's not a good solution."

"Really, really not," Xander said, but he smiled at her. "Although I like the out of the box thinking."

"Plus, we don't know for sure what the werewolf is doing for Oz," Willow said, stroking his hand as it lay on the bed. "Dr. Jones thinks you're right, and it is helping – and it certainly seems that way – but curses are tricky things. His wolf might help him this time, but not the next, you just never know."

"So…so I'm not crazy," Cameron said, still feeling that unnatural calm. She knew she should be freaking out, but she just wasn't, for some reason. "Werewolves are real. And demons. And magic."

Willow sighed. "Yes, it's all real. Do you have any questions?"

"Well, yeah," Cameron said, almost collapsing. Suddenly, Xander was there with a chair for her to sink into, which she did. "Magic? Demons? How did I not see any of this before?"

"Most people don't want to," Wilow said. "You might have seen something before, but you couldn't fit it into your worldview, so you dismissed it and forgot about it. It happens all the time."

"You mean, lots of people see demons or, or…" She remembered the paws and claws she'd seen on the ends of Oz's arms and shuddered. "And just…"

"Yep," Buffy said, hopping off the window sill. "You saw something of the weird the last time were here, and you just ignored that, didn't you?"

Cameron stared at her, remembering the syringe in House's hand, held motionless by this tiny woman as House towered over her. She hadn't doubted that House couldn't move, but she also hadn't really questioned it or thought about it much afterwards.

"That's…that's crazy," she said.

Buffy shrugged. "It's healthy. Most people can't handle finding out that the world they think they know isn't so much. So they just don't believe it."

"But we're glad you can handle it," Dawn said.

Cameron shook her head. "I'm not sure I can. I mean, I'm glad to know that the stuff in Oz's blood is helping him survive the malaria, and I'll be honest, this is all fascinating and I have lots of questions, but won't this…I don't know, affect what I see now? I'm not sure…"

Willow sighed again. "It will change your life, Dr. Cameron," she said. "Which is why we don't just tell people about all of this; they need to figure it out for themselves."  
"Or at least mostly," Xander said.

"Yeah," Dawn said. "Mostly!"

Willow glanced at her again, then shook her head. "They're not supposed to have help, Dawnie," she said.

"Oh, like you didn't have help," Dawn said, tossing her head. She didn't seem to notice the amused looks Buffy and Xander were exchanging.

"Anyway," Willow said, "things will be different for you from here on out. Unless you don't want them to be."

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked.

"Well, I know you said you know magic is real, but I don't know if you've internalized it. I'm a witch."

Dawn snorted. "That's like saying George Washington was a general." Everyone stared at her and she stared back. "True, but not complete?"

Buffy shook her head at her. "What Dawn is trying to say is that Willow is one of the most powerful witches in the world."

"Okay," Cameron said, not quite sure what to say to that. "Congratulations?"

Willow smiled. "Thanks. But you see, one of the things magic can do is make people forget things." She must have seen the look of horror Cameron could feel on her face, because she hurried on. "I don't like to do it, but if you ask me to – "

"No, definitely not," Cameron said. "I don't know how to explain it, but my brain is…is me. If I change it…"

"I understand," Willow said, smiling at her. "Like I said, I don't like to do it, but I felt like I should offer you the option. This really is going to change your life. You'll see things you never would have before, notice things that aren't what you'd consider normal. And I suspect that once word gets out – and it will – that a doctor in Princeton knows about the supernatural, you'll be swamped with half-demons, werewolves, witches not in control of their powers, anyone who would feel uncomfortable going to a doctor who wouldn't know what they were seeing."

"You mean people don't go to the doctor when they should because, because…" Cameron trailed off and waved her hands vaguely in the air, not sure how to say what she meant, but sure that she was appalled it would happen.

Dawn jumped up and gave her an enthusiastic hug. "I knew I was right to do it," she said.

"We will be talking about that, Dawn," Buffy said. "You can't just let people into the Watcher's Council site, you know that." Dawn looked up at her, and even though she couldn't see them, Cameron knew she was deploying the puppy dog eyes. Buffy sighed. "All right, it worked out this time, but you just can't make that decision on your own…we'll talk about it later."

"What is the Watcher's Council?" Cameron asked, partly to get Buffy's focus off of Dawn, to whom she was grateful, and partly because she really did want to know. "What is a Watcher, anyway? And what is a Slayer?"

Dawn gave her shoulder a pat and sat back down in her chair, looking like she was trying to get comfortable. "Who wants to do the honors?" she asked.

Buffy, Willow, and Xander exchanged looks, and then Xander sighed and said, "Willow."

Willow grinned and turned to Cameron, her eyes alight. "You see, Dr. Cameron," she said. "This world is older than you know…"

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Cameron sat at her desk, her eyes fixed on all of the paperwork she needed to do, but not really seeing it. Her world had just been turned upside down; if Dr. Cuddy knew what was going on, even she couldn't blame her for not being able to concentrate. Not that she would ever know.

Worse than that, though, was the fight she and Chase had had when she'd run into him on her way down from Oz's room. He was still just as convinced that she should see a psychiatrist, and since she'd just come from having everything confirmed – and then some – by Willow and the others, she had not been in the mood to listen to him. The fight had been in public, but it had been all the worse for that; since they couldn't yell as much as they wanted to, they'd had to say more horrible things to get their points across. Cameron wasn't at all sure they could recover from a fight like that.

While she sat there, wondering what she could possible do to make this better, the door opened and Dr. Jones entered, followed by Willow. Willow was paler than normal and when she sat down in the chair across the desk from Cameron, she fixed her gaze on her hands in her lap, so her hair almost covered her face. Cameron looked up at Dr. Jones, who smiled sadly at her, shut the door, moved some of the paperwork aside, and perched on her desk.

"So, I understand that you know about the supernatural world now," she said. She was obviously trying to be sympathetic, but even though Cameron knew she'd being doing it on purpose, the effects of deliberately being annoying lingered. She wanted Dr. Jones to get off her desk.

"I do," she said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest. "It hasn't made my life better so far."

Willow let out a little sigh, and Dr. Jones nodded. "No, and it probably won't," she said. "But I'm confident that you'll handle any extra duties that come your way well, and you can always call me, day or night, if something comes in that you have trouble with." It took Cameron a moment to realize that when she said 'something,' Dr. Jones really meant 'someone' – like Willow had said, a werewolf or half-demon who hadn't been comfortable going to the doctor before. She glared up at Dr. Jones, who apparently didn't notice. "We're not here about that."

"We heard about your fight with Dr. Chase," Willow said, her eyes wide and sad.

"You did?" Cameron said, feeling her face heat up.

"Well, we _heard_ your fight with Dr. Chase," Willow said. "Or saw it, anyway. It looked intense."

"Yeah," Cameron said, looking down at her hands. "We said…we said horrible thing to each other. And he thinks I'm crazy. I mean, I know all this _sounds_ crazy, but I know it's not, and I wish he would listen to me. I've never lied to him before – why won't he trust me?" She heard the slight hysteria in her voice and forced herself to breathe deeply.

Dr. Jones put a hand on her shoulder, and Cameron had to force herself not to flinch. "Some people just can't handle changing their worldview this much, so they just refuse to believe it. I'm sorry."

Cameron managed to smile up at her, but she was relieved when she took her hand off her shoulder and stood up.

"There is something we can do," Dr. Jones said, waving a languid hand at Willow. "I understand Willow told you about memory spells."

"Yes, but I already said I don't want – oh, Chase."

"Yeah," Willow said, her voice soft and sad. "I really don't like doing memory spells, and especially not on someone who doesn't know about it and didn't agree to it. I…it's so tempting, you know? If you change the memory of someone just because they didn't agree with you, you're really changing who they are."

Cameron nodded. That was why, even though she wasn't thrilled about this whole supernatural world intruding on her highly ordered one, she hadn't even been able to contemplate having Willow make her forget about it. How could she do that to Chase? He may be annoying her right now, but she loved him, and one of the things she loved the most about him was his mind. How could she change that?

"I know," Willow said, and she really looked like she understood.

"This is a different situation, though," Dr. Jones said. She sat back down on the corner of the desk, and Cameron tried hard not to cringe. "Willow won't be here for long, so it's not like you could do this over and over again, even if you wanted to. And let's be honest, Dr. Chase could make a lot of trouble for you. And we need you here, not on administrative leave because he convinced your dean that you're crazy."

Cameron put her hands over her face, not wanting to see either of them. She followed the logic. She might even agree with the logic, but this was Chase they were talking about. Would he even be the same person after they'd tampered with his mind? And what did it say about her that she'd even consider it?

"I promise I would only take the memories of the supernatural," Willow said quietly. "That would also make him forget your fights, because they only happened because of all of this. He'll be exactly the same person you knew and loved before you told him about Oz."

"Are you sure?" Cameron asked through her hands.

"Yes," Willow said. "Unfortunately, I do have some experience with doing this."

It was the 'unfortunately' that decided her. If it had just been Dr. Jones telling her she should do this, she wouldn't have. But Willow understood, and Willow would be the one actually doing the spell. She could trust Willow.

"All right," she said, lowering her hands and looking only at Willow. "I can't say I like it, but I do see why we need to do it. Do you…do you want me to be there?"

Willow shook her head. "There's no there there," she said. "I don't even need to be near Dr. Chase – I can do it from my hotel room."

Cameron stared at her. "I have to admit that's a little creepy."

Willow nodded. "More than a little." She stood up and turned towards the door. "I'll head over to the hotel and get started. We really don't want Dr. Chase to –"

The phone rang, interrupting her. Cameron glanced down at the ID on the phone and saw it was Oz's floor. She grabbed the phone and said, "Dr. Cameron."

"Dr. Cameron, this is Andie Miller." Cameron breathed again and started to smile. Andrea Miller was the head nurse on Oz's floor, and she sounded happy. "Your patient is awake."

"Thank you, Andie," she said into the phone, but she also smiled and nodded at Willow, who suddenly looked like she was lit from within. Then, even more suddenly, she wasn't there anymore. Cameron managed to hang up the phone without giving her shock away to Andie, but when she looked at Dr. Jones, it was to see her rolling her eyes.

"What? How?" Cameron said.

Dr. Jones shook her head. "Teleportation. She's such a show-off. I do hope she manages to appear someplace where no one will see her."

"Teleportation? You can do that?"

"Well, I can't," Dr. Jones said. "But Willow can."

Cameron followed her out of her office and up to Oz's room, marveling once again at this new world she'd entered.

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Cameron puttered around her office, putting books away and feeling much better about the world than she had in a while. Oz was going to be fine; apparently, his werewolfness had helped him even more once he woke up. In fact, he already seemed like he hadn't been sick at all. Willow had remembered to do the memory spell on Chase, even though she practically hadn't left Oz's bedside since he'd awoken. Cameron still felt guilty about changing his memory, but she was also thrilled that when he'd poked his head into her office to say hi, he hadn't looked at her like she was crazy. Dr. Cuddy hadn't seemed to notice how preoccupied Cameron had been the past few days, and her staff had more than picked up her slack. They'd even sent a patient up to House, and when she looked at his records, she saw that they'd done every single test she would have done before they sent him up. Life was good.

"Live one coming in," Linda said, poking her head around the door. "He's asking for you by name."

Cameron looked up. "Again?"

Linda snorted. "This one's just managed to break his leg somehow," she said. "Although he does have a really odd skin condition."

"On my way," Cameron said, grabbing a pair of gloves on her way out the door. She wondered what type of demon this patient was as she headed out into her new life.


End file.
